Using Job Boards - Best Practices For the Job Seeker Every day, it seems like another job board comes into the world. Regardless of whether you flock to some local employment site or one of the "biggies," like Monster or CareerBuilder, there's one thing they all have in keeping; they protect the identity from the hiring managers and decision makers you are applying to.
Initially, this may appear to be no big deal. How come it matter who you submit your resume to, right? Today, I want to show you why it matters exactly how you use a job board, and discuss the very best practices you can implement today, to make your entire job search process fine tuned.
Job Board Guidelines
1. A great source for employment leads.
webjobsEmployers spend lots of money to post their jobs on these employment websites. Visit them regularly, and check for your next position, by keyword and placement. Sift through the results to determine whether you need to submit your resume and cover letter. Do your research about the company, before applying.
2. Get new job postings emailed to you daily or weekly.
The aim here is to automate this task whenever possible. Go to your favorite job board, and check for the target position. About this web site, there will be an option to have your search results delivered via email, or RSS feed. Depending on your individual preferences, choose either the e-mail or even the Feed option. Now you'll have fresh job leads that match your specified search criteria.
3. Consider using an aggregator.
What am I referring to? An aggregator compiles the entries all from the major job boards, and places them on a single website. The very best example, and the most popular aggregator is definitely.com. Why bother using Monster, Career Builder, and all the others, when you are able go to Indeed, perform a search, and also have ALL results either emailed or sent via the RSS feed we previously mentioned. Now that's automation!
4. Avoid posting your resume.
Employers are moving away from paying to gain access to the job board resume databases, because they will find quality candidates using the social networking sites, like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, etc. If you wish to interact with the best hiring managers and recruiters who still access job boards, consider going with the board that are experts in your niche. Of course, if you're currently working, you are able to seriously jeopardize your employment status by posting your resume on any job board, because your boss may be the someone to find it. Much more doubt - expect to target your employers; not the other way round.
5. The first choice should always be to apply directly with an employer's website.
If you've ever applied for a job on any of the major job boards, you realize there's usually no contact details provided. There might be some background information concerning the company, although not nearly enough to find out you want to develop a career with this particular employer. After you have determined what organization is hiring, immediately visit the corporate website. Find out around you can concerning the position, and the stability of the employer. Whenever you apply via a job board, this is one additional layer your resume and phone information must undergo, before reaching the desk of the decision maker. What if there is a technical failure? What if the task board's server is down for that short period of time when you're uploading your information? I recommend going straight to the origin, and applying directly through the hiring organization's website.
Regardless of how you slice it, the social networks are slowly using the place of the task boards - just like the job boards took the area of the traditional classified advertising. While it's still important to utilize employment and career websites as a source of leads, they dwindle essential in actually connecting with the decision makers.